You know the worst part about that panel? Lew Shiner was supposed to have been the moderator. He had been listed as the moderator but when that other guy got there–and you know, I can’t remember his name now, either–he insisted that he was the moderator. Lew shrugged and said OK. Later on, I asked Lew why he hadn’t pressed the issue of who was moderating; Lew told me he hadn’t wanted to create bad feeling at the outset.

Oy.

I had come prepared to talk about all things cyber–I was writing stories that would eventually mutate into Mindplayers, Synners, and Fools and I was eager to find out what everybody else was doing.

Oy.

But you know, I also remember that before all the panelists had even made their opening statements, a certain big name writer in the audience interrupted and said something to the effect that we weren’t really saying much of consequence, we were just sitting up there “telling everyone how great you are” (unquote). But the mike hadn’t gotten even to me yet–I hadn’t had a chance to tell everyone how great I was and Mr. Big Name hadn’t even noticed! I felt so insulted!

Thank you for everything,
X

Judging by this excerpt, this memoir is going to be totally awesome. Great stuff.

Charlie, in ’83 I was running a food/supply warehouse, my role being to coax a 386 running dBaseII into keeping track of the stock, and had just realized I’d impregnated my wife, thus launching us into the surreal/sfnal world of raising an autistic child. By the Nineties I’d jumped over to the Uni Library, which let me play with many computers and an actual network. I can’t decide whether art imitates life, life imitates art, or art and life both irritate me.
Rudy, stuff like that panel bewilders me. Why be jealous of a new thing being born? A rising tide lifts all boats. There was a lot of angst about punk music, too, and no one seemed to realize that the people buying it were new fans. In the end it just meant more shows and more record sales and more muscle for the genre.